Archers thread #156: Fireworks in Ambridge! Helen gave Lee a rocket, but Grey Gables is a damp squib. Is the writing on the (church) wall?Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you're irresistibly attracted to George Grundy, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the title suggestion, which I have tweaked a bit. I was strongly tempted by Less GGP (Grey Gables Peril) More GPP (Guinea Pig Plot), which was a plaintive cry from @PuppyPerson some days ago, but if Poppy has found new homes for the baby guinea pigs that may be the last we hear of them for some time, sadly.

Surely in the life of the next thread we must hear more from or of Rob, or Ron as some on this thread prefer to call him? <taps foot> Will Kirsty snap and tell Helen a few home truths? Will Pat's shotgun finally be brought into play? We can only hope ...

Also, will we ever find out who owns the other 60% of Grey Gables? Why is Adil AWOL (to use the other bit of OverArmour's title idea!)? Why aren't we hearing from Roy? Will GG ever re-open and will Emma get her Big Chance at last?

So many questions! Over to you.

Peggy's reaction is difficult - first of all if the actress hadn't retired she would surely have been more involved in this storyline. She has always been so supportive to Helen over the years (indeed didn't she state she would leave The Lodge to her when there was a very premature and totally unnecessary kerfuffle about her will some years ago?) it feels slightly unrealistic that she hasn't had any input in this latest storyline. Throwing her toys out of the pram at St Stephens is entirely in character though - she stormed off to Borchester when Janet Fisher was appointed. She's probably also needled at not getting her way about the new church window. The idea that everyone else would flounce off after her seems a bit OTT though - for a baptism that was carried out by another vicar in another parish.

He is much missed by me.

I want him to marry Helen!

Keeping Peggy as a character with no actor is okay if she isn't central to a story - Auntie Pru was there / not there for years, but it makes suddenly having something where she is central very awkward. The next step should be Tony having a chat with his mum telling her that Alan didn't do any of the things he's accused of, with a side order of beastly Bruce. But that can't happen.

I’ve been listening for 10 or so years (I think) and she’s always been a horrible character, using her money to manipulate people and acting like the lady of the manor.

The storyline with Tony and the recording where she was so horrible about him as a child…just a nasty, nasty woman.

Yes, the conversation “Is that what we are?” pregnant pause “Friends?” could have gone in quite a different direction…

Certainly Ruth and Stella sound much more like equals than Pip and Stella do. I wonder whether at some point it will occur to Stella that a relationship is not supposed to involve one partner parenting the other?

It’s an interesting question - she has just lost her dog who she nurtured so perhaps the idea of nurturing pip is attractive.

i wonder if pip and Rosie will end up having a relationship where Rosie is the emotionally mature one always picking her mum up!!

I hope so, but don’t know how much emotionally mature influence she has on her..

Sorry! (Not sorry.) I was being deliberately obscure as I doubt anyone else on this august thread sullies their mind with ‘Big Brother’.

But there’s a very, very awkward ‘love’ triangle happening on that show at the moment - and Ruth asking Stella if there wasn’t now more to their relationship that just being mates reminded me very much of reality TV.

Stella initially turned Pip down on the basis that she’s been burned before by having relationships with “experimenters” - now she finds herself in a relationship with someone who thinks her new-found lesbianism makes her even more central to the universe than she was already, and who is already being controlling. Stella’s horribly enmeshed as well what with her home being involved, her relationship with Ruth / Brookfield and her job also links her to the Archers.

it would be very unrealistic if the no-nonsense, proactive person Stella has been up till now didn’t decide to extricate herself asap.

Maybe she could encourage Toby to come round, get pip drunk and stay over..

On the plus side - we don’t seem to have another unplanned pip pregnancy

Also hasn’t it been relentlessly signposted that Pip will end up with Rex? The Stella fling surely has to come crashing down - they can’t be making it this awful for nothing.

You mean, like "It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs.Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four."?

I hope they’ve forgotten that. Rex is a decent guy and deserves so much better than Pip.

😂

Honestly is Pip the five year old or is it Rosie. Surely Stella should be spotting the red flags in this relationship?

The think that annoyed me most of all about the Stella/Pip scene yesterday was the 'ruined' spaghetti. What the hell were they doing to it? You boil it for 10 mins, job done. And then they expect her mum and dad to be able to rustle up extra dinner for two adults and what sounds to be a very fussy five year old! They do not know they are born

I too was baffled by the ruined Spaghetti. Did they let it boil dry? Are they stupid? Was there really nothing else to eat in the cottage?

I didn’t understand the whole clumpy spaghetti. I’ve never had that happen with either fresh or dry. What did they mean by that?

I understand Stella bought fresh but surely there would be a packet of dry in the house of Rosie loves it so much. I find it a bit odd that the meal was pre planned to such an extent as well.

Does anyone think that Stella is going to cop off with Ruth at some point (the undiscovered lesbian gene) and that's going to cause an almighty row.

I’d too considered that a while back @NetZeroZealot but when Stella chose Pip, figured that ship had sailed.

Last night’s episode did have me wondering if it’s still a possibility.

After all, in Ambridge, the path of true gay love must never run smooth.

Didn't Adam have a fling a few years ago with a farm hand or something?

Yes. Pawel?

yeah, that would be a great SL
many women discover/decide they are lesbians after long apparently happy marriages to men

There’s one little detail from last night no one has mentioned. Kenton and Jolene are getting their silent fireworks from Eddie! EDDIE??????